Newest Parklet Opens in El Sereno

A little slice of El Sereno just got a little sweeter with the grand opening last week of the neighborhood’s first parklet, an outdoor seating area with a park-like feel created as part of a City of Los Angeles pilot program.

The parklet, located in front of recently renovated grocery store on the 4900 block of North Huntington Dr., joins three other recently opened parklets, one in Highland Park and two on Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles.

The El Sereno location features attractive wooden benches just off the sidewalk. “Parklets are temporary extensions of the sidewalk that provide seating and recreational public space to encourage increased pedestrian use and community interaction,” according to Councilman Jose Huizar’s office. Three of the new parklets, including the one in El Sereno, are in the councilman’s 14th district.

The councilman, working Living Streets LA, hosted several community workshops where El Sereno residents and local stakeholders were able to chime in on the parklets location and design.

“Residents carefully chose a location at the crossroads of their neighborhood and created a design that captures the history, nature and character of El Sereno,” said Steve Cancian with Living Streets L.A. in a written statement.The CD14 Pilot Parklets will inform the LA Department of Transportation’s Streets for People program which will give stakeholders an opportunity to bring parklets, bike corrals and street plazas to their neighborhoods, according to Huizar’s office.

El Sereno recently celebrated the completion of another major project. According to Huizar’s office, El Sereno Arroyo Park has opened on the corner of Alhambra and Concord Avenues, once the site of a vacant lot.